Blood Money

I just went through the hassle of registering after many years of stopping by just to warn you. This movie is by far the worst movie I've ever seen. The plot, the acting, the dialogue is horrendous. The fighting in it is amazingly dull and boring as well. I read somewhere that this guys is the next Bruce Lee? bhuahahahahaha is all I got to say to that.

If you desire to waste your hard earned cash and waste your precious time? then be my guest, but I personally rather watch paint dry or lick windows than waste my time on this....i should have know when i read about him being the next Bruce lee lol

God save yourselves lol

I understand were all different. We all see things in a unique perspective-our own.

Having said that, I cant believe for one second that someone sat through this whole movie and thought to themselves, 'wow!'. I cant believe it.

I wanted this to be good 'cos I was bored and hoping it would sit nicely. I was wrong. Its very confusing and feels like its trying too hard to be something its not-exciting and plot-driven.

Im sorry. There is no way someone thought this movie was above a 5, let alone an 8!

The ratings at IMDb cannot be trusted. Come here to get the plot idea about the movie but put no faith in the ratings. They are garbage. Either that, or the site has nothing but 12yr old 'pitbull' fans posting their reviews.

Don't get excited like I did and mistake this for some kick-ass Hong Kong actioner. It's actually an Australian cheapie which just so happens to be shot in Hong Kong. It stars the unknown actor Zheng Liu as a fighter who gets involved in a battle against the usual drug runners. I know little about Liu, except that he trained at the real-life Shaolin Temple, but his acting is woefully bad and any martial talents he possesses are hidden by poor choreography which all too often employs the unwanted shaky-cam. The plot is cookie cutter stuff, Gordon Liu's cameo is wasted, and the CGI explosions take bad FX to the next level. It's pretty tiresome, if I'm honest.

I got this movie at full price, 20$ new, which is something i rarely do. I took this one cause it had a french track on it, kudos to them for making it, as the other 2 movies i hesitated with didn't had it... I just hate English dubs, and those other movies where Asian. I can stand french dubs cause i was raised watching those, but English dubs... no. So i got to watch them in cantonese with subtitles and well... anyway.

So i got this one and well... let me say that its a very sloppy movie. The story is hard to follow, as some pointed out, there is not much explaining who is who and does what, its one of those movie that could had use a voice over with a freeze frame on the major players explaining who they where.

Then the special effects... I'm sorry but computer blood and fire explosions that seem like they where made by an university student for a movie project... no thanks... Damn they are bad.

Martial Arts? Well the only saving grace of this movie... some are actually well done and pretty good, but sadly sometimes it got to be stained by that usual wired crap that its just screaming obvious in your face.

In the end, a very forgettable movie that i should had got for 5$ in the bargain bin, not at full retail price...

Advertised as 'the next Bruce Lee', Zheng Liu makes his acting debut in Blood Money as Zhou, an unnamed hit-man for hire that changes his morals to suit whoever is offering the biggest cheque. But when his family is murdered by a ruthless drug lord, his job becomes somewhat more personal as he sides with the Asian Triads and goes looking for sweet revenge.

That's about as explanatory as anybody could be in attempting to synopsise this utterly plot less endeavour. Each formulaic scene plays out in the same fashion: rival drug gangs sit down for a meeting, tempers flare, shots are fired and any number of expendable baddies are removed from play, only to have an almost identical character take their place within mere minutes. Deaths, or at least death threats, are omnipresent, with the barrel of a gun often enjoying more screen time than the man holding it.

Those who disapprove of rapper Pitbull's glorified, self-indulgent music are not likely to enjoy his glorified, self-indulgent performance, but not all the blame rests with the hip-hop megastar.

The 'so-bad-it's-good' overacting and sketchy line delivery becomes very tired very quickly to the point that even the respected Gordon Liu, best known by Western audiences as Pai Mei from Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill saga, can't salvage an out-of-place role as Zhou's Shaolin monk mentor.

Often, the lone saving grace of films like this one is the action, but not so here. Being a martial artist first and an actor second, Liu's physical skill is apparent, but his fight sequences are shot and choreographed so poorly that they make Sonny's infamous miss on Carlo Rizzi look like a send-off offence.

In case the point hasn't been made clearly enough already, there are no redeemable qualities to draw from Blood Money, which is at best an embarrassing excuse for an action thriller and at worst an unmitigated disaster of a film.

*There's nothing I love more than a bit of feedback, good or bad. So drop me a line on jnatsis@iprimus.com.au and let me know what you thought of my review. If you're looking for a writer for your movie website or other publication, I'd also love to hear from you.*